Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in this specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed in Australia or elsewhere before the priority date of this application.
Klinkhammer (US2008/0004108 A1) discloses a method of connecting a game terminal to one or more roulette tables. A player selects certain wagering options on the game terminal pertaining to a roulette table of the player's selection. The game terminal issues a ticket with a certain starting time. The player takes the ticket to the table to oversee the outcomes of the games beginning at the start time on the ticket. In one embodiment, the player selects 10 numbers over 15 games, and following the play of 15 games the player may be awarded a prize determined by the number of matching games and optionally the order of the matching games Klinkhammer discloses that the second type of game has different rules of play from the first type of game.
A key drawback of this approach is the fixed predetermined starting time of the ticket. There are a number of reasons players might find this aspect inconvenient. One reason is the lack of clocks in some casinos. Another reason is that a player might arrive at the selected table at the selected starting time and wrongly believe that the ticket is active, or wrongly believe that the ticket is not yet active, due to the system clock not being exactly synchronised with the player's watch. Or the player might get delayed or sidetracked en route to the selected gaming table due to unforeseen circumstances and subsequently miss one or more games.
Another drawback of this approach is that the player must select at which roulette table to place wagering options whilst at the gaming terminal. Live casino game players are often influenced by situational events at roulette tables such as recent winning outcomes or sequences and runs of previous outcomes or the orientation of a particular table or which dealer is currently operating any particular table or to what extent players at any particular table are having a run of luck. Players tend to act on such impulses when deciding at which roulette table to place their bets and this is not easily determined whilst at a gaming terminal.
Another drawback of this approach is that the player must complete the consecutive run of games as specified on the ticket. There are various reasons this may not be desirable. For example, at some point after the ticket starting time, the dealer might be replaced by another dealer not to the player's liking. Or the player may be unexpected called away from the table, causing the player to miss out on seeing some of the games. Or there may be a dispute or delay at the table which the player is forced to endure in order to see out the remaining games on their ticket.